


The Worst Scavenger Hunt

by lapinprince



Category: Persona 5
Genre: 6/2 birthday, Akira makes the worst birthday plans ever, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Can be considered part of False Fervor, Feat the confidant characters to help, Happy Birthday Goro!, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Slight needle cw, Surprise Party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-17 10:23:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14830481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lapinprince/pseuds/lapinprince
Summary: “Don’t you think this is weird or somethin’?” the kid in the red hat asked once they reached the platform of their destination. Goro shook his head, though finding that if he moved himself too much the stack in his arms swayed, too. He kept still.“I’m assuming this is a prank, or something,” he said, remembering perhaps too well the strange pranks that Futaba and Akira would team up to plan for him.“Well, you’re wrong!” the young boy said with conviction, pointing at him and his dumb stack of pancakes. “It’s– uh–” He faltered mid-speech, his outstretched finger retreating back for his hands to sit folded in his lap instead when he couldn’t find an excuse. “It’s a prank.”Or, Goro barely remembers what day it is when he finds a pancake on the ground and begrudgingly embarks on a meticulously and ridiculously planned scavenger hunt to find out why.





	The Worst Scavenger Hunt

**Author's Note:**

> happy birthday goro!! this kind of breaks my dry spell of not posting for nearly half a year... ive been writing, just not finishing anything but having this as a deadline helped me a lot. you can keep an eye out for more works from me soon, maybe some projects, who knows? 
> 
> either way earlier on was the anniversary of when i posted my first fanfic on here! i can't think you all enough for all of your support, i still get kudos for all of my fics daily and it makes me feel so happy to know that people enjoy my writing. you all inspire me to keep writing!! thank you for all the kudos, comments, bookmarks, recommendations, all of it! 
> 
> thank you to [del](https://twitter.com/kiryuyoshiya) and [bagel](https://twitter.com/nonnecheri) for beta reading. as always my twitter is @[laprincenico](https://twitter.com/laprincenico), pls say hello! 
> 
> you can see the bottom for more notes about the fic itself. this is the longest oneshot ive written ever and im glad i got to flex my comedic writing skills again! just be aware of a slight cw for needles in the second half, but its written very evasively so hopefully it doesnt bug anyone- but be careful anyway! thank you, darlings!
> 
> -♔

A pancake lay neatly on the ground, perfectly centre outside the door of the police station. It had been sitting completely undisturbed for who knows how long, but it at least looked like it was cooked earlier that day. The pancake was plain, no signs of any butter or other toppings spread on top, just a pristinely plain pancake. The longer someone looked at it, the more their mind could trick themself into thinking that the presence of this fluffy food item belonged where it rested. Regardless, the fact still remained that a mystery pancake was unashamedly planted onto the concrete just outside an institutional building. Goro was speechless. 

“Akechi-kun, you may want to take the east exit on your way out,” Sae had said just minutes before, thumbing through a pile of paperwork. 

“Ah-? Why so?” Goro had asked her, filing his own folders away into his trusty briefcase. Sae looked to him with a serious face, though if his mind wasn’t tricking him he saw a flicker of _something_ change in her expression, for just a moment. She glanced down, maintaining her previous stony expression. 

“Just take the east exit, Akechi-kun,” she said, using the papers in front of her as an excuse to busy herself and end the conversation. Not one to unnecessarily question authority, Goro packed up his briefcase and bid her goodbye, heading towards the east exit and opening the door, where he came eye to eye with the pastry on the ground. 

“Was this… was she trying to have me find this?” he asked himself, brow furrowing as he stooped over to pick up the pancake. He flipped it over in his hands idly as he wondered why he even bothered to grab it, the answer to this question shown quite obviously to him as he examined the other side. An arrow was marked in some sort of red food colouring, pointing towards his right. He glanced up to the direction it referred him to, rewarding him with the sight of yet another pancake sitting on a bench a little ways down the block. 

“...Uhm,” Goro said quietly. He suppose he had no choice but to look at the next one. He opted not to put the initial pancake into his briefcase, leaving him to carry it instead as he walked over to the second pancake. This one, too, had another arrow that kept directing him further down the block, and so he scooped the pancake into his hand and kept on his way.

Though they didn’t have arrows, he found the third pancake balanced on a bush, the fourth in a newspaper stand, a fifth one half eaten by the base of a tree, and a sixth one inside a mailbox, directing him towards the train station. He had quite a stack at this point, and it was attracting attention of passersby who were rightfully confused to see the Detective Prince with a tower of pancakes in his arms, roaming Tokyo. As he approached the opening of the train station, he saw a young boy with a backpack standing quite still, but looking fairly displeased due to the pancake sitting atop of his hat. 

“Oi! You!” he shouted rudely, wobbling to make sure the pancake didn’t fall. He pointed directly at Goro, a fierce look in his eyes. 

“Y-yes? Do you need help–?” Goro asked with uncertainty, finding it hard to look at the boy’s face instead of the pancake on his head. 

“B-bring me to Shinjuku!” he barked, beckoning for Goro to come over. His face was flushed pink out of embarrassment. 

“Uh… yes, I can do that,” he agreed, approaching the boy. 

“Good! A-and, and, uh- Take this too!” He pointed at his hat, and Goro reached out to take it to add to his pile. How could he have forgotten?

He followed the boy to the train line to Shinjuku, not saying a word. 

“Don’t you think this is weird or somethin’?” the kid asked once they reached the platform of their destination. Goro shook his head, though finding that if he moved himself too much the stack in his arms swayed, too. He kept still. 

“I’m assuming this is a prank, or something,” he said, remembering perhaps too well the strange pranks that Futaba and Akira would team up to plan for him. 

“Well, you’re wrong!” the young boy said with conviction, pointing at him and his dumb stack of pancakes. “It’s– uh–” He faltered mid-speech, his outstretched finger retreating back for his hands to sit folded in his lap instead when he couldn’t find an excuse. “It’s a prank.” 

“Alright, then. Consider me pranked,” Goro replied, giving another count of the pancakes he had accumulated so far- seven. 

The rest of the train ride went fairly silently. When the train announcer called for the Shinjuku station, the boy jumped to his feet and stormed off the train, Goro following closely behind. He continued to follow his lead until he reached a rather large intersection. 

“I’m- I’m going now!” he called, turning around and running off. Goro could almost hear a “thank you” lost to the wind, but having had to spend money to escort the young one there, even the whisper in the void was a nice consolation. He stood with his stack of pancakes, wondering what he should do now, half looking for another pancake, half wanting to go home, before a voice called out for him.

“Hello! Sir, would you come over here?” a clear and dreamy sounding voice said. A blonde woman wearing a headband gave him an equally dreamy smile when he turned towards the sound. Well, if he was off babysitting 10 year olds today, he may as well go with what the fates were giving him. 

“Come, come, take a seat, dear-” the woman said, gesturing to the plush seat across the table from her. Considering the tarot cards, talismans and the small crystal ball spread out on the velvety tablecloth, he figured she must be a fortune teller of the sorts. 

“I am doing free readings today, would you like one, dear?” she asked, her eyes sparkling. Goro cradled the stack of pancakes to his chest and settled himself down into the chair. “Oh, you can set those down right here, actually–” She pulled an intricate plate out from under her table, it holding yet another pancake. He gratefully took the plate and set it on the corner, putting the stack on top of it. He kind of hated how accustomed to this he was already. 

“Sure, I’d love to have a reading,” he said, watching her lithe hands pick up her cards, shuffling them neatly. She dealt three cards face down onto the table, picking each one up carefully and placing them back down without letting Goro see. 

“I see… the cards seem to say that you have fallen out of touch with a part of yourself, and now is the time to revisit– in most people, this generally touches upon the idea of faith. When was the last time that you visited a church?” the woman asked, quickly putting the cards back into the pile. 

“Never. I’m not religious,” Goro replied flatly. It wasn’t completely a lie, the one and only time he was at a church he was dragged there against his will. The woman looked at him for a bit, her gaze drifting towards the stack of pancakes before snapping back to his face. 

“Well, I would… suggest that you visit a church regardless… there’s one not far from here in Kanda, you should go pay a visit now…” she said, struggling to maintain her composure. She wasn’t wrong, though, Kanda was only in Chiyoda, just a few train stops away. He scooped up his pancakes and stood. 

“I suppose I will. Thank you for the reading,” Goro said, though his voice was a lot more deflated than just hours before. 

“You’re welcome dear- oh, the plate stays here, please, I don’t have anything you can use to carry that, I’m afraid-” Goro quickly put the plate back on the table, taking the pancake with him. With a respectful nod, he turned to leave with his stack, noting that a few more pancakes had suddenly appeared on the way back to the train station. The telltale bright red brim of a hat poked out from behind a building as he collected his 9th, 10th, and 11th pancakes and entered the station. 

The ride from Shinjuku to Chiyoda only took about 10 minutes or so, and luckily the church the fortune teller was speaking of was right at Kanda station, as promised. Feeling more and more of his dignity drain from him as he walked with the tower of confectionary in his arms, he entered the hallowed halls of the church, hearing peaceful organ music inside. 

“Hello, challenger,” a confident voice echoed in the raised ceilings of the building. A young woman wearing a blue uniform with a red corded ornament adorning her hair stepped forward, a cool aura emanating from her. 

“Challenger?” Goro repeated. The church was entirely empty except for the board set up by the front pew. 

“Yes, challenger! You must have played shogi, correct?” Goro somewhat wished he never had, but he couldn’t lie. 

“Yes, I have,” he said, crossing the room to her and putting his stack of pancakes on the seat of a pew. 

“Good! We must do battle, then.” She gave a small sigh of relief, breaking her character, but quickly brandished a playing piece, their game beginning. 

He recognized the woman, in fact. This was Togo Hifumi, a top shogi player. There was no way that he would win. He at least lost quite gracefully and didn’t go down without a fight. 

“Well done!” she said. He noticed that her voice changed tones when she was in a fighting mood, and her voice was quite pleasant otherwise. 

“Thank you, it was an enjoyable match,” he said, bowing deeply out of respect. She beamed and lifted the shogi board, revealing yet another pancake.

“Here is your reward for your efforts! E-er- if you need advice about any strategy, there’s a man at Shibuya station that would be helpful- you should go look!” She stuttered slightly, like she was reading lines off her wrist. He reached to take the pancake and added it to the others, seeing that there were faint scribbles of pen ink poking out from her blazer sleeve. Obviously the former parts of her act were well rehearsed. 

“...Sure, I will do that,” Goro replied without question. Togo tilted her head slightly, eying him carefully. 

“Are you not… suspicious? Of the journey you’ve been set on?” she asked carefully. Her hand tensed around her phone by her side, no doubt a text message to Akira probably drafted, ready to send. She was too easy to read. 

“No, not at all. I’m just following what these kind people are advising of me,” Goro said innocently. To add to the facade, he pulled a small bite out of a pancake that wasn’t on the ground, and popped it into his mouth. Strangely enough, it was enough to fool Togo, and her grip on her phone slackened, the tension in her shoulders dropping. 

“Good! Well, you should get going, then-” Togo took her seat back in the pew, starting to refigure the shogi pieces, presumably for a new game. Goro nodded his head again in acknowledgment. 

“Thank you for your time, Togo-san,” he said, checking that his stack of pancakes were all accounted for and exiting the church. He was quite relieved that he was in the church for a shogi match, and not to be forcibly shoved into a confessional like last time. Again, more pancakes appeared on the way back to the station– 13, 14– and again, he saw the red brim of a baseball cap poke out from around the corner, then disappear towards the station itself. He hoped the boy had a train pass or something, and he wasn’t having to spend yen to tail him with pancakes ready. 

He sat on the train, finding a 15th pancake nearby, on top of a newspaper on the seat next to him– the boy worked fast, he presumed. He took the short ride to Shibuya, getting off at the terminal and exiting the station. Immediately, he was treated with the sight of the grand presence of Yoshida Toranosuke, a previously disgraced politician who was now on the rapid up and coming in the field. He was giving one of his soapbox lectures as usual, though the sign he carried had a pancake speared on top of it. 

“Young man! Are you interested in politics?” he asked with a confident voice. Goro obediently toddled over to the man, his 15 high stack wobbling in his hands. Yoshida had a determined, almost fiery look in his eyes. Perhaps, if any, he would be the one to follow their script the best today. 

Yoshida took a grounding breath and began. “Well! You’re the Detective Prince Akechi Goro, yes? I suppose you may not be necessarily be planning on entering the world of politics, but…” 

He continued on, Goro nodding along as he spoke. He certainly had gained more self confidence over the past year, considering how he was liable to flee whenever anyone called him the common nickname of “No-Good Tora” not just months before. Hearing him speak was actually a borderline honour, as anyone who could dredge themselves up from such allegations was more than worthy of Goro’s respect. Whatever guidelines he was following, he was using to its fullest as his initial topic flowed perfectly to what he assumed was the final point to nudge Goro into another direction.

“The most important thing, however, is you must take care of yourself! Have you had a physical checkup lately?” he finished, pausing to reach up to the pancake lodged onto his sign. It took Goro a moment to recognize that he was being spoken to.

“Er- not lately, no,” he replied, accepting the pancake that Yoshida gave him, sliding it onto the top of his new stack of 16. 

“There’s a wonderful doctor at Yongen-Jaya! You should pay her a visit and see if she could potentially give you a check up. You wouldn’t want to have any ailments plaguing you while you’re trying to work, for sure!” Yoshida offered him a sunny smile, and Goro’s weariness at this journey became just a bit lighter. If he was able to meet people like this, perhaps this back and forth was worth it. It was somewhat astonishing that Akira had known all of these odd people all over Tokyo, but he supposed he wouldn’t question it. 

“I’ll go see her, then. Thank you, Yoshida-san.” Goro bowed once more and carefully eased himself and his stack of pancakes away. He swore he could hear Yoshida began to say “Happy Bir-” but as the man stopped mid sentence, he decided to chalk it up to a nearby car speeding by. 

At first glance, he thought that there was not a pancake waiting for him on the short way back to the station. There was, it was just in the mouth of a dog rearing back and somehow barking back at the boy from before, who was also shouting at the dog to let go of the pancake, the dog’s owner desperately trying to tug it away. The dog finally dropped the pancake onto the ground, the boy swiping it up immediately. Finally noticing Goro standing there, he stared up at the detective like a child who got caught with spilt milk, frozen for nearly a minute. Then, in a split second he jumped, tossed the pancake onto Goro’s stack and darted away. 

Whatever Akira planned, this was uncomfortably thorough. He wondered if he had to bribe the young boy to chase him around with a seemingly endless stash of pancakes. 

The train ride to Yongen-Jaya was very short, and soon enough he was bustling out of the train station, pancakes wobbling to and fro. He located the doctor that Yoshida was referring to, recognizing how he had been also dragged here once after quite the close call in the Metaverse. The doctor, he remembered, was kind, if not cryptic and somewhat intimidating. 

“Hello. I remember you, are you here to help me with that experiment I mentioned last time, as promised?” Takemi said coolly, drumming her black nails on the desk. Experiment? Goro paled slightly. Did he promise such a thing? He wasn’t even given a moment to hesitate, though, as she was already coming out from behind the counter. “Leave those in the lobby and come with me,” she said, pointing to his wavering stack. He set them down shakily and was soon after whisked into her lab without much choice at all. 

Suddenly, Goro was without his coat, the cuffs of his shirt sleeves unbuttoned and pushed up his arm. She worked quickly, speaking words that he couldn’t quite hear thanks to the pricks and pokes in his elbow and the sight of red twisting out of him in neat, thin tubes. He closed his eyes again in resignation, and everything soon went black.

“–llo? I didn’t think that the dear Detective Prince would be this frail, but-” he heard Takemi’s voice say. He blearily opened his eyes, staring up at her. She wiggled three vials full of blood in her hand, raising her eyebrows. “You’re alive, right?” she said jokingly, tucking the vials away into her lab coat pocket. “Sorry about that, Akira told me you’d be good with this.” He sat up, finding a round and pink bandaid tucked in the crook of his elbow. 

“It’s… fine, I was just startled,” he said, still too groggy and confused to say much else. Really, perhaps a year ago he would be agitated enough to fight back against probably the worst scavenger hunt, but he felt little negative energy available to retaliate. She at least looked somewhat apologetic, meaning that he could direct his misgivings to someone other than the subject starved doctor. 

“Well, if you don’t mind, could you deliver this to Leblanc?” Takemi asked, holding a paper bag. He reached out to take it, noting that it felt like there was a bottle that rattled with pills inside. She led him back out. Another pancake was resting on his stack– 18. He sighed and tucked the medicine in his briefcase, draped his coat over his arm, bid Takemi farewell, and continued on his way to Leblanc, scooping a 19th pancake off the ground on the way.

Really, the next hour can only go one way- he’d enter Leblanc and his friends would shout “Surprise!” and startle him, he’d probably drop all the pancakes, then he’d be overcome with emotion at his friends going through such lengths to give him a birthday party, on a day that he had felt alone the rest of his life. He looked forward to it despite the exasperation that this day had given him so far, just because [his birthday last year](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11072016) had been such a pleasant change from the norm. With a bit of a bounce in his step, he turned the doorknob and shouldered his way Leblanc to be faced with…

...nothing. The cafe was actually empty, only Sojiro at the counter, wiping away at the surface as usual. He gave a brief nod of acknowledgment, but that was it. Confused at the silence, he approached the owner and sat at a barstool, his stack of pancakes plopped ungracefully onto the counter. As if he remembered something, Sojiro knelt down behind the counter, producing a 20th pancake and placing it on top of the stack, with a laughable amount of stoicness. He then turned his back and fixed a cup of steaming hot coffee, Goro’s favourite blend too. The porcelain rattled slightly in the saucer when it was set down in front of him.

“Slow day, huh?” Goro asked, noting the addition to his pancake supply from the corner of his eye as he sipped from the cup. Sojiro picked up the rag again and kept rubbing at a stain on the counter that Goro was positive had been there for years. 

“Yeah, I guess so. Just how it is,” Sojiro replied, not lifting his face to look at Goro once. 

There was a bit of an awkward lull between the two, Goro waiting for Sojiro to say something to explain the pancake chase of the day, Sojiro just dutifully scrubbing the hardwood stains on the surface. 

Goro broke the silence once he remembered the true reason he was there. “Oh, I have a delivery for you from Takemi,” he said, producing the paper bag from his briefcase and sliding it across to the man. Sojiro picked it up and peeked into the contents.

“Ah, right. Thanks, I forgot I ran out. Actually, do you mind dropping this off at my house for me? You can just shove it into my mailbox or something.” Goro blinked at him, taking the bag back. 

“You’d trust me to do that, Sakura-san?” Goro asked.

“I’d trust you with more,” Sojiro replied, without skipping a beat. A strange warmth bloomed in Goro’s chest at the thought of being _trusted_ by a man who’s proven to be, by default, the opposite of the word. Granted, it had been just over two years of getting to know him, but still.

“You can leave these here and pick them back up later,” Sojiro said. Goro slid out of the seat, briefcase in one hand and the medication in another, feeling rather motivated to do such a simple task. 

“Thank you,” Goro said, nodding his head as he exited the cafe. 

“What a strange day,” Goro said aloud to himself as he rounded the corner to the Sakura household. He couldn’t figure out what this all added up to, but perhaps if he just dropped off the medication in his mailbox as requested and turned back to Leblanc, all of his friends would pop up upon his return. His walk sped up to a brisk pace, feeling excited to see the result of all of Akira’s work. 

He turned the corner, medication in hand, and heard a startled “Wh- There he is!” shout from his left, someone else shout something incomprehensible from the right, and suddenly he felt the wind knocked out of him and a warm body pinning him down to the ground, hands scrabbling panicked at his shoulders, and a bag shoved overtop of his head. He fought back, wriggling and shouting, making the person on top of him shout back when he accidentally grabbed at something squishy. Despite the unintentional grab, his struggle was clearly futile as the sheer weight of his assailant was enough to keep him from doing anything but lay still.

“Got it!” said the person laying on top of him, breathing ragged. They rolled off and another force pulled him up to his feet, cradling him to their chest. His hands were brought in front of him and bound together with a thin and stretchy piece of fabric.

“I have him. Please fetch his belongings,” a deeper voice ordered, booming against Goro’s back. He heard the previous voice scramble again to pick up his belongings as he was walked away from the site of the assault. 

He was dragged through an open gate, his foot catching on the fence. He yelped and the person pushing him forward also yelped, making the one holding his briefcase also yelp. He assumed that the three of them had all smacked themselves into the fence, like a true trio of elegance. He heard an exasperated sigh in front of him.

“Dear god, you guys suck at this!” said another voice in front of them, the voice a lot more shrill than the other two. “Give him here-”

“No, you’re too small to carry him-” protested the deeper voice. Smaller hands grasped at Goro’s arms, yanking him to hang overtop the person’s shoulder, feeling like his whole body was folded in half seeing as he was a full foot taller than them. If only he wasn’t as dizzy, then he could get out of these sorry restraints and at least walk with dignity to wherever they were taking him.

“Shit, there’re stairs-!” There was no point in pretending there was any anonymity in his assailants anymore- this was Ryuji speaking, squawking as if they had a major lapse in their logistics of their plan, when in fact it was really just common sense. Goro hoped he had grabbed Ryuji’s arm or something earlier, feeling embarrassed knowing that there weren’t many squishy areas on the athlete in the first place.

“I’ll help carry him up-” offered another voice, calm and crisp, probably Makoto. The person carrying him– Futaba– shifted him over to land in the arms of Makoto, what was probably Yusuke carrying his legs, and the four of them awkwardly crawled up the stairs like a creepy baby spider. 

“This is dreadful,” a soft and feminine voice said in awe once they got to the top of the staircase. Thankfully Haru was here, maybe she had the common sense to do something that would result in less injury. Goro clearly thought that too soon, as Ryuji decided to heft Goro’s body up and quite literally throw him onto the landing of the stairs with a shout of effort. Goro bounced ungratefully along the floor until he rolled into the wall, all of his startled noises muffled by the infernal bag still covering his face. Though, as his vision began to become clearer, he was noticing two holes in the bag, near the top, and a third, if whatever flap of fabric was revealing it as such. He slowly got himself to a sitting position as his mind processed what the object on his head was.

“Oh, Goro-kun is here!” Ann chirped happily, but her tone shifted very quickly to something drastically different. “Ryuji… did you use…” she began, but her reaction all but confirmed to Goro why there was an elastic band like object circling his neck.

“Underwear?!” he bellowed, still unable to even lift the offending garment off his head. He wanted to stop breathing and just get it off himself, wanted to figure out who this underwear belonged to, but apparently that wish couldn’t even be granted. Goro was gently pulled up to his feet and walked forward more. His belly hit the edge of a table, presumably his destination. Quick hands untied the fabric– also underwear, he presumed– and finally the briefs on his head were pulled off his face. 

“Happy birthday, Goro!” Ah, so this was the plan in the end. He looked at the wide grins of Ryuji, Futaba, and Ann, the slight smiles of Makoto and Yusuke, the downright beam of sunshine coming from Haru, the flickering tail of Morgana, and of course the pleased face of Akira. Sae and Sojiro also stood nearby, part of the party but obviously wanting the younger ones to have their moment. A cake sat on the table in front of him– a _cake_ and not a _pancake_ – and Goro’s eyes started to well up. 

“You planned… such an _outrageously_ outlandish scavenger hunt for me–” he began, looking around again at his beloved friends’ smiling faces. 

“Okay, it was Futaba’s idea–” Ryuji said, pointing at the orange haired girl, who puffed up soon after the accusation.

“Your idea too!” she protested, pointing back.

“I mean, Haru and Makoto made all the pancakes–” said Ann, twirling a pigtail and giggling. 

“You and I were the ones to plan out such a route, though– with Morgana’s help, of course.” Yusuke said, hand rested against his chin. 

“And without Akira’s connections we wouldn’t have been able to get so many people to help out too!” Morgana said, his white tipped tail swaying back and forth. It sounded scripted, as if they wanted Goro to know that every single one of them had put in an effort to plan this day for him. He couldn’t complain.

“...So?” Akira said, coming to his side and starting to unruffle his hair thanks to the covering. Goro’s mouth opened, but only stutters could come out. He still was having issue with even processing what happened. 

“I… don’t know how to feel about this,” he admitted, his eyes still watery with tears, still flickering back and forth to see his friends standing here with him, almost like he was just making sure they were still there. 

“It’s okay! Last time we surprised you and you looked like you were gonna cry, so I had to think of a different way to surprise you.” Akira grinned and leaned in to kiss his cheek. Goro stayed unmoving. 

“Ah- Goro-kun, are you bleeding–?” Haru asked, reaching for his arm. He glanced down, and he supposed that all of the exertion of getting his limp body into this house and up the stairs made the blood sample site open up and begin to leak blood again. He stared blankly at the small patch of blood on his white shirt.

“...Oh, shit, did Takemi actually take blood from you-” Akira said, dumbfounded. 

“...Yes. She did,” Goro stated plainly, feeling like the floodgates were opening. “She actually took blood, a rude little boy met me at the train station and forced me to take him to Shinjuku, then he led me to that fortune teller sent me to a _church_ , where I was made to play a game of shogi against one of the _city’s top shogi players_ , then I was sent to talk to a politician who just tossed me towards Takemi in the first place, after _losing a portion of my blood against my will_ I go to Leblanc expecting some sort of surprise but instead I just had a nice chat with Sojiro–” his hand flailed outwards to gesture towards the man– “and as I was anxious over the impending surprise I just get assaulted instead and nearly knocked out with whoever’s underwear on my head!” 

He huffed, needing a few deep breaths after his rant. Nobody said a word, potentially scared that Goro was actually angry. He looked down, away from the ten pairs of wide eyes trained on him.

“But you had fun, right?” Akira said, breaking the spell, throwing an arm around Goro and pulling him in close. Of course, only Akira would be able to pull Goro down from this, especially if it was really a bad mood. But Goro couldn’t even stay mad at the ridiculousness of the whole thing– once he saw the tower of pancakes on the table for the first time, his breaths started to become exhaled laughs, probably just from the idea of Sojiro rushing down the street with them, desperate to get into the house in one piece and undetected while the kids were busy wrangling him to the ground. He wheezed, laughing fully for quite a while, rubbing at the tears threatening to spill down his cheeks. 

“Y-yes. I did,” he admitted once he finally came down from his laughter. Akira grinned and kissed him again. 

“Good. C’mon, let’s light the candles on your cake–” Akira nudged Goro’s side, reaching over with a lighter to effortlessly sweep the flame over the tips of the wax candles. Goro exhaled at the sight, of another birthday cake just for him, surrounded by people he loved that loved him. The tears began to fall again, running in thin tracks that spilled off his grinning face, Akira’s hand resting on his shoulder a comforting presence while the others sang. He thought of what he wished for most at that moment– _for this, forever–_ and took a deep breath, blowing out all the candles in one go. 

“I sure hope those are happy tears,” Akira murmured to him, still glued to his side. Goro nodded firmly while Makoto scooped up all the candles, still billowing small trails of smoke.

“They are,” Goro said, leaning his cheek onto Akira’s hand, “They usually are, now.”

**Author's Note:**

> some sick notes about this fic instead of a snappy one liner for once
> 
> \- this can be considered part of the false fervor universe! because the characterization of akira and goro and their dynamic is the same here  
> \- for clarification the "helpers" of the fic are, in order: shinya, chihaya, hifumi, yoshida, and takemi!  
> \- yes that is 1 pancake for every year. our boy is 20 today  
> \- i tried to shove some more goro ships in here too like ryugoro and akekita but i could not succeed super well. but pls imagine it  
> \- also yes goro accidentally grabbed ryujis dick  
> \- and that was akiras underwear but its probably clean so its ok. dorks didnt have any rope


End file.
